Video: Creating vignettes

In addition to selectively revealing portions of a clip or animating and wiping on a layer, another common thing you do with mask is create vignettes. Maybe areas of the frame which are say slightly darkened in the corners. To do that I'm going to create a Layer > New > Solid. It says we have a solid block of color, which I will then selectively mask to create my vignette. I am going to make sure that my solid covers the entire composition, so I'll click the Make Comp Size button and I'll pick a color for the vignette. Typically I go black, but since I have some really nice blues and purples going on with this footage I think I'm going to use the eyedropper and pick a really dark color along this freeway here to be my vignette color, just to tie the vignette in with the rest of my footage. Click OK, name this layer more intelligently like vignettes and click OK.

In this course, Chris Meyer demonstrates the most common techniques for adding selective transparency to layers in After Effects through the use of masks, track mattes, and stencils. In addition to explaining the tools and basic theory behind transparency, the course covers several practical applications for these techniques, including isolating objects, creating vignettes, and filling text with visual texture. Tutorials on crafting custom transitions and other treatments are also included. Exercise files accompany the course.

The After Effects Apprentice videos on lynda.com were created by Trish and Chris Meyer and are designed to be used on their own and as a companion to their book After Effects Apprentice. We are honored to host these tutorials in the lynda.com Online Training Library®.

Creating vignettes

In addition to selectively revealing portions of a clip or animating and wipingon a layer, another common thing you do with mask is create vignettes.Maybe areas of the frame which are say slightly darkened in the corners.To do that I'm going to create a Layer > New > Solid.It says we have a solid block of color, which I will then selectively maskto create my vignette.I am going to make sure that my solid covers the entire composition, so I'llclick the Make Comp Size button and I'll pick a color for the vignette.Typically I go black, but since I have some really nice blues and purples goingon with this footage I think I'm going to use the eyedropper and pick a reallydark color along this freeway here to be my vignette color, just to tie thevignette in with the rest of my footage. Click OK, name this layer moreintelligently like vignettes and click OK.

Now I have a solid filling in my screen.I want to mask out that solid to reveal my stack of layers, my title, myadditional footage underneath.I am going to go to my tools, select the Ellipse tool, and I can either startdragging out of vignettes, which is fussy, or I can just use the shortcut ofdouble-clicking the Ellipse tool.With my layer selected, that will create a nice ellipsethat's the full size my layer.Well I do have a bit of a problem right now.

I've got a big oval obscuring my footage, which is kind of the opposite of what I wanted.That's not a problem. I'll click the Invert to invert the effect of my mask andnow I've got an oval reveal with darkened corners that are the color of my solid shape.I want to soften up that transition, so I'm going to go ahead and press F toreveal Feather, start scrubbing the Feather to go ahead and get that a bit ofsoftening that I wanted. This yellow mask outline is kind of blocking what I'mdoing, so I am going to go ahead and turn that off for now.

So I see suggest the vignette.If I want to expand or contract the amount of the area that vignette is taking up, I'll make sure the layer is selected, twirl up my layer, and then press MM toreveal all of the mask parameters. Again you can just twirl the mask as well.And I can use my Mask Expansion to either make the vignette just hit the cornersof my layer or to go ahead and take up a lot more the layer, just maybe create asmall hole in my world like that.But I'll go ahead and make it just take up the corners and to soften effects inthe corners I could either increase the Feather even more,Undo, or press Shift and T to reveal the opacity of the entire layer and fade outthe whole vignetted layer to just add a little bit darkening in those corners.

Before, after. I like vignettes quite a bit. They do add just a bit of class toa video project. It's worth spending a little bit of time adding them.Now in fact I did a whole course on creating vignettes. That might be worthwatching if you like this technique and there we go. We've created aninteresting little composite here, by by going ahead and taking this footage,masking it out selectively to reveal just portions of it, and by doing sorevealing a background layer behind, animated on a title, and created a vignettejust to add a little bit of classy darkening to the corners, and all this wasdone with a very simple mask shape tool.

However, there are many occasions where just these simple rectangles,ellipses or even polygons and stars aren't quite enough. You need more detail in your mask.And for that you use the Pen tool, and that's going to be the subject of thenext chapter inside this lesson.

Find answers to the most frequently asked questions about After Effects Apprentice 05: Creating Transparency .

Here are the FAQs that matched your search "" :

Expand all | Collapse all

please wait ...

Q: This course was updated on 11/15/2012. What changed?

A: We added a movie that shows our premium subscribers how to use the exercise files, We have also added new sets of exercise files designed for After Effects CS5.5 and After Effects CS6.

Sorry, there are no matches for your search "" —to search again, type in another word or phrase and click search.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

Already a member ?

Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
Learn more

Upgrade to our Annual Premium Membership today and get even more value from your lynda.com subscription:

“In a way, I feel like you are rooting for me. Like you are really invested in my experience, and want me to get as much out of these courses as possible this is the best place to start on your journey to learning new material.”— Nadine H.

Thanks for signing up.

We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.

Keep up with news, tips, and latest courses with emails from lynda.com.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.